History of Economic Thought // Spring 2025
marcio.santetti@emerson.edu
“No economist’s name is more frequently invoked than that of Adam Smith, and no economist’s works are less frequently read.” (Heilbroner, 1986, p. 11)
What happens if you “google” the term Invisible hand?
1723: Born in Kircaldy (Scotland)
1751: Chair in Logic at the University of Glasgow
1752: Moved to Chair of Moral Philosophy
1759: The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Tutor to Charles Townshend’s stepson
1763: Travels to France and meets Quesnay
1776: Wealth of Nations
1790: Died at 67 in Edinburgh
Historical context
The (Scottish) Enlightenment
Goal: human emancipation
Reason + “passions”
The (Scottish) Enlightenment
Important views:
The laws of Political economy should stand on their own
Are the acquisitive ethics of capitalism compatible with traditional virtues of sociability, sympathy and justice?
Bernard de Mandeville (1670—1733)
Essays + Lectures given at the University fo Edinburgh prior to 1759 (TMS)
[1] Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
[2] The History of Astronomy
[3] Lectures on Jurisprudence
[1] Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
“We are to observe that … subordinate propositions should not be above five in number. When they exceed this number the mind cannot easily comprehend them at one view; and the whole runs into confusion. Three or thereabout is a very proper number; and it is observed that this number is much more easily comprehended than two or four. In the number three there is, as it were, a middle and two extremes; but in two or four there is no middle on which attention can be fixed.” (pp. 142–43)
[2] The History of Astronomy
Likely around 1758
Why do men theorize in the first place, whether about astronomy or anything else?
“[T]he repose and tranquillity of the imagination is the ultimate end of philosophy.” (p. 61)
[3] Lectures on Jurisprudence